Topping the class academically was certainly an advantage. Studying was a breeze for
Nigel. The reward was certainly incomparable to the little effort that he had to put it. It begin when he was selected to help the teachers in the computer laboratories.
The peak of his school career came not when he topped the school but when he was selected for the nationwide competition. Unlike everyone else, Nigel wanted to join the contest because he liked playing with the Lego sets and making something out of them. Nigel spent the next two months rebuilding the robot. It was during the time that Nigel found out about the prizes for the competition. Its well us auspices competitor. Alicia, from a neighboring school. His early intentions were forgotten. Getting the thousand-dollar prize was more important than anything else. Nigel decided to befriend Alicia. Unaware of his intentions, she told him all about the robot that she had been building for the competition. He even helped her to put the finishing branches to her robot. He was glad with the way things had progressed. His robot looked even better than Alicia’s and it was able to become a ball with its arms, something Alicia had failed to do.
On the day of the competition, he says Alicia. Everything dawned on her the minute she saw him among the competition. She stared at him, puzzled at first, then angry and finally a look of helplessness came over her.
The flashbulbs of the camera exploded in Nigel’s try. The robot bird performed actions so unique and different that the specialist judgments were the same. Nigel was so personal with himself that he did not even notice the girl standing a few feet away from him. Without her, he would never win the competition.
【小题1】What reward did Nigel receive for doing well in his school work?

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据短文的内容要点完成文章后的表格列单。

注意：补全填空应符合语法和搭配要求，每空只填一个单词。

American public education has changed in recent years. One change is that increasing numbers of American parents and teachers are starting independent public schools called charter schools.

In 1991, there were no charter schools in the Unite States. Today, more than 2300 charter schools operate in 34 states and the District of Columbia. 575000 students attend these schools. The students are from 5 years of age through 18 or older.

A charter school is created by groups of parents, teachers and community members. It is similar in some ways to a traditional public school. It receives tax money to operate a number of students. The charter school must prove to local or state governments that its students are learning. These governments provide the school with the agreement, or charter that permits it to operate.

Unlike a traditional public school, however, the charter school does not have to obey most laws governing public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell it what to teach.

Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to reach those goals. Class sizes are usually smaller than in many traditional public schools. Many students and parents say teachers in charter schools can be more creative.

However, state education agencies, local education-governing committees and unions often oppose charter schools. They say these schools may receive money badly needed by traditional public schools. Experts say some charter schools are doing well while others are struggling.

Congress provided 200 million dollars for establishing charter schools in the 2006 federal budget. But, often the schools say they lack enough money for programs. Many also lack needed space. District officials say they have provided 14 former school buildings for charter education. Yet charter school supporters say officials should try harder to find more space.

Charter Schools in America

E
Teenagers who drink alcohol are at higher risk of becoming victims of violence, a Cardiff University study has found.
A team from the School of Dentistry' s Violence Research Group studied drinking habits in
children aged | 1-16 in England. They found not only a link between drink and violence but also
that children who drank were more likely to be hit, even if they weren' t violent themselves.
The researchers are now calling for measures to prevent alcohol misuse to reduce injury
risk. Current policy focuses on reducing aggression but this research shows that there should be
equal effort to reduce victimization(受害).
More than 4,000 children were surveyed at 13 schools at four local authorities in the North, the Midlands, London, and the South. The study found that 25% of 1 l-year-olds were drinking
monthly and 3.6% daily, with 12.8% admitting to getting drunk 3 to 5 times a year. By the age
of 16, 40% were drinking weekly and 6.2% were drinking every day. The research also showed
22.6% of 16-year-olds were getting drunk more than 21 times a year.
The study, which has just been published in the Journal of Adolescence, found a strong
link between frequency of drinking and frequency of hitting other people.
However, children who reported drinking monthly were also three times more likely to be
hit. Adolescents(青少年) who drank but didn't get into fights were more likely to be hit than
those who did fight.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who led the research, said a lot of previous alcohol-related
violence work had focused on the offenders rather than the victims. His team is calling for more pre-vention work from parents and teachers in the first two years of secondary school by taking advantage of the "teachable moment", that is, immediately after a student has missed school because of drunkenness.
Previous work by Professor Jonathan Shepherd has shown drinkers may be more at risk of vio-lence because of reduced physical co-ordinatlon ( 配合), poor decision-making in threatening situa-tions and isolation while out late at night.
He said,"This new study seems to be the first to show a direct link between alcohol misuses and victimization. There now needs to be much more effort put into reducing alcohol misuse in order to reduce injury. "
58. The underlined word "aggression" in the third paragraph probably means_____
A. violence         B. sad feelings     C. bad manners          D. drunkenness
59. Drinkers may be more at risk of violence because of all the following EXCEPT __
A. reduced the physical co-ordination
B. isolation while out late at night
C. a higher frequency of hitting other people
D. poor decision-making in threatening situations
60. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to Professor Shepherd' s research?
A. The frequency of children getting drunk increases with age.
B. His previous alcohol-related violence work had focused on the offendersl
C. Some children missed school because of drunkenness.
D. This new study shows a direct link between alcohol misuse and victimization.

.
改错（满分10分，每题1分）
Most families in China hoped their single children will            76. _______
have a happy future, so they are very strict in their children.  77. _______
So do teachers in schools! Many children are given so much        78. _______
homework that they hardly have any spare time have sports.        79. _______
The children are forbidden to do anything but to study. No          80. _______
wonder so many children are tired of lessons. Some even           81. _______
attack or kill his parents and teachers! I believe many people 82. _______
already read this kind of news in newspapers or magazines.         83. _______
Shouldn’t we draw lesson from the accidents? Now our            84. _______
government are carrying out a plan to solve the education problems. 85. _______

In Europe, many people make friends between their countries through town twinning. Town or city twinning means two towns in different countries agree and decide to become “twins” with a sister city relationship.

The people find pen friends in the twin town. They exchange newspapers and stamps. The school teachers discuss teaching methods with the teachers in the twin town. Officials visit the twin town for celebrations. Ordinary people travel to the twin town, too, but not very often if it is far away.

Sometimes, schools even exchange their classes for two or three weeks! For example, German middle school students study for a while at the school in their twin town in Britain, staying with British families. A few months later, their British friends come to study in Germany.

Many British towns are so pleased with the results of the twinning that they set out to find more than one twin town!

Tonbridge, a small town in Kent, for example, has twin town in both Germany and France. Richmond near London has relationships with Germany, France and even a town in a Balkan(巴尔干半岛的) country!

Town twinning can help make friends. It helps students improve their language skills, and also helps people to understand the differences between nations.

1.Twin towns develop ______.

A．between European countries and China

B．in the English-speaking countries only

C．in the same country

D．between different countries

2.How many countries are mentioned in the passage?

A．4                B．5                C．6                D．7

3.One of the advantages of town twinning is _____.

A．to earn more money

B．to set up schools

C．to improve students’ language skills

D．to develop industry and agriculture